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Graisserons aka Fatty Meat Bits

Frequently I find recipes that look like they would be good, but they are poorly written and I can just tell that I will find myself in the kitchen being angry at the person who created the recipe. Sometimes its a language barrier, sometimes its just a lack of knowledge of how recipe writing works, and sometimes its just a lack of editing. I think the latter is the case in terms of this recipe from Serious Eats for Graisserons. The author, Chichi Wang (who just happens to be from our fair city of Albuquerque and also in possession of a Philosophy degree) is usually really good. In any case, my issue with the recipe is that “1/2 meat stock” is not a thing and the recipe never tells me what to do with the garlic and spices. “Easy enough”, I thought, “I can figure this one out” and so I did.

First, I decided that “1/2 meat stock” probably means 1 to 2 cups of meat stock, so I added 2. Second, it seemed fairly obvious to me that the garlic and spices should get added along with the meats. Third, I did not have time to babysit something on the stove for 2 hours, so I put it in the crock pot overnight. Finally, I used turkey gizzards and a turkey drumstick (a 2 pound drumstick O_o) because I have so much really good turkey to use. This is what it looked like at the end of cooking, still bubbling away:

After that photo was taken I strained out the stock, put it aside, picked out the garlic and spices, picked out the bones, and set aside all the meat to chop later. The bones came out of the trotters and the drumstick super easily. (Yes, I tasted it, swooned, then dutifully put it away.)

The next day I chopped up all the meat and reheated the stock and fat. Then I filled several jars with meat, poured over the fatty stock, and covered them. If I had a pressure canner I would have canned them, but that is not an option yet. I did have to use a chopstick to make sure that the liquid did not form bubbles in the pockets between the meat, here’s sort of what that looks like:

As you can see the meat sticks up out of the fat a little, which is not ideal. The fat should totally seal in the meat, next time I will fill the jars less. And here’s the finished product:

*DROOL*

I took a few on a group camping trip this weekend and had all my friends swooning. This biz is super filling and not healthy on the face of it, but I guarantee you’re not going to make an entire meal just of this. It goes perfectly with a big plate of raw vegetables, fruit, pickles, and a good hearty whole grain bread. Perfect camping food.